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32 .\" @(#)xargs.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/xargs/xargs.1,v 1.34 2005/05/21 09:55:09 ru Exp $
34 .\" $xMach: xargs.1,v 1.2 2002/02/23 05:23:37 tim Exp $
41 .Nd "construct argument list(s) and execute utility"
48 .Op Fl R Ar replacements
59 .Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
63 utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited strings
64 from the standard input and executes
69 Any arguments specified on the command line are given to
71 upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read
72 from the standard input of
74 This is repeated until standard input is exhausted.
76 Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single
78 or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``\e'').
79 Single quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines,
80 up to the matching single quote.
81 Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters, excluding newlines,
82 up to the matching double quote.
83 Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
85 The options are as follows:
86 .Bl -tag -width indent
92 characters as separators, instead of spaces and newlines.
93 This is expected to be used in concert with the
100 as a logical EOF marker.
104 for each input line, replacing one or more occurrences of
110 flag is specified) arguments to
112 with the entire line of input.
113 The resulting arguments, after replacement is done, will not be allowed to grow
119 bytes; this is implemented by concatenating as much of the argument
122 as possible, to the constructed arguments to
127 The size limit does not apply to arguments to
131 and furthermore, no replacement will be done on
137 If this option is specified,
139 will use the data read from standard input to replace the first occurrence of
141 instead of appending that data after all other arguments.
142 This option will not affect how many arguments will be read from input
144 or the size of the command(s)
148 The option just moves where those arguments will be placed in the command(s)
152 must show up as a distinct
156 It will not be recognized if, for instance, it is in the middle of a
158 Furthermore, only the first occurrence of the
161 For example, the following command will copy the list of files and
162 directories which start with an uppercase letter in the current
166 .Dl /bin/ls -1d [A-Z]* | xargs -J % cp -Rp % destdir
172 non-empty lines read.
173 A line ending with a space continues to the next non-empty line.
174 If EOF is reached and fewer lines have been read than
178 will be called with the available lines.
183 options are mutually-exclusive; the last one given will be used.
185 Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each
192 standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the
194 option) exceeds the specified
196 or there are fewer than
198 arguments remaining for the last invocation of
200 The current default value for
206 in the child process before executing the command.
207 This is useful if you want
209 to run an interactive application.
211 Parallel mode: run at most
220 will run as many processes as possible.
222 Echo each command to be executed and ask the user whether it should be
224 An affirmative response,
227 causes the command to be executed, any other response causes it to be
229 No commands are executed if the process is not attached to a terminal.
231 Compatibility with GNU
237 argument at least once, even if
239 input is empty, and it supports a
241 option to inhibit this behavior.
248 argument on empty input, but it supports the
250 option for command-line compatibility with GNU
254 option does nothing in the
258 .It Fl R Ar replacements
259 Specify the maximum number of arguments that
261 will do replacement in.
264 is negative, the number of arguments in which to replace is unbounded.
266 Specify the amount of space (in bytes) that
268 can use for replacements.
273 Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to
275 The sum of the length of the utility name, the arguments passed to
279 terminators) and the current environment will be less than or equal to
281 The current default value for
287 Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it
292 to terminate immediately if a command line containing
294 arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length.
303 Undefined behavior may occur if
305 reads from the standard input.
309 utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a
310 command line cannot be assembled,
312 cannot be invoked, an invocation of
314 is terminated by a signal,
317 exits with a value of 255, the
319 utility stops processing input and exits after all invocations of
322 .Sh LEGACY DESCRIPTION
325 option treats all newlines as end-of-line, regardless of whether
326 the line is empty or ends with a space.
331 options are not mutually-exclusive.
333 For more information about legacy mode, see
338 utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.
343 exits with a value of 127, otherwise if
347 exits with a value of 126.
348 If any other error occurs,
350 exits with a value of 1.
359 utility is expected to be
366 options are non-standard
368 extensions which may not be available on other operating systems.
372 utility appeared in PWB UNIX.
376 attempts to invoke another command such that the number of arguments or the
377 size of the environment is increased, it risks
384 utility does not take multibyte characters into account when performing
385 string comparisons for the
389 options, which may lead to incorrect results in some locales.
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